1. Field of the Invention
The following description relates to a signal light that is integrated in a module housing of a vehicle. For example, a vehicle may include a camera module for providing a driver with a view of the side or rear of the vehicle, and the camera module housing may include one or more signaling lamps that may be used as indicators, warning lights, blind spot assistance lights, welcoming lights, among other uses. The camera module housing may be integrated with a side-view mirror, may be separate from a side-view mirror, or may replace a side-view mirror so that the vehicle includes the camera module housing without a side-view mirror.
The following description also relates to a control circuit for controlling a lighting application in a vehicle. For example, a monitoring circuit and a rear view display device for a vehicle having such a control circuit or monitoring circuit installed therein. According to one example, a control circuit may activate a first light source to flash while simultaneously activating a second light source to be permanently lit.
2. Related Art
With the emergence of autonomous vehicles, several concepts have been developed for identifying or marking autonomous vehicles as compared to manually operated vehicles on the road. One common concept is to mark autonomous vehicles using a new light-drive so that others road users may see the light from any angle and identify the vehicle as an autonomous vehicle. This may include activating the mirror indicator so that it is permanently lit in a different color. However, if the vehicle were to make a turn, the turn signal would no longer be available as it is being permanently lit in a different color. Further, the color of the turn signal is regulated by law and, in certain jurisdictions, may not be changed to a different color. Thus, according to at least one aspect, there is a need for a mechanism which controls two light sources to operate simultaneously.
In other applications, turn signal lamps are used to replace side-view mirrors where turn signal lamps include a camera for providing a driver with a view of the side or rear of the vehicle. That is, side-view mirrors are being replaced with camera modules that include a lighting mechanism for turn signals. Such turn signal lamps or camera modules are typically positioned on the side of the vehicle and include light emitting diodes (LEDs) and light guides that are arranged so that drivers of other vehicles can easily detect when a driver intends to turn. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/207444 A1 to Tatara, et al. describes a camera module housing that includes light emitting diodes and light passages that are arranged for turn signal indication.
In vehicle lighting applications, lighting devices having different colors may be used and separately controllable. If several lighting devices, e.g. light sources that have different colors and which are separately controllable, are used in components of a vehicle, for example in a rear view mirror, additional wiring, such as wiring for a second supply voltage, and/or a BUS connection needs to be utilized for controlling the lighting devices independently from each other such that the indicator can alternately flash in different colors.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,674,285 B2 to Drummond, et al. describes a vehicle rearview device system, wherein several devices comprised in a rear-view device are controlled via a vehicle's bus system, such as a LIN, CAN, Flexray or Ethernet system or an SMBus. However, most rear view devices do not include interfaces for an additional voltage supply and/or an interface for the vehicle's BUS system to control several lighting devices independently. Also, introducing corresponding interfaces would increase the complexity and costs of the overall system.
Therefore, camera modules that include an improved arrangement of LEDs and light guides for providing improved visibility to a driver of a vehicle is needed. Also, versatility in light indications provided by a camera module; for example, by using indicators that include more than one color is needed. Further, there is a need for an improved control circuit that can be used for controlling at least two lighting devices and that doesn't need to be connected to a vehicle's bus system, and/or doesn't need to utilize several input voltages to control the lighting devices independently.